The U9s entered their first festival under contact rules this Sunday.
The squad was made up of Berty, Matthew, Terrel, Kane, Tom, Cormac, Harry, Louis S, Max, Ella, Sam, Finn M and Maxwell.

The team started well with a great defensive display against Thurrock, Manor managed to stop the host from getting out of their own half for the majority of the match. We also managed to score a well worked try from a line out which worked like clockwork, with Kane skilfully throwing the ball into Berty and then it was fed onto the backs by Louis and eventually ended up with Cormac, who beat his man and finished sweetly in the corner.

Manor went on to draw their second game against Heathfield due again to a strong defensive display from Berty, Tom, Terrel, but unfortunately we lost two of our best tacklers, Harry & Cormac to head injuries in the second half. The team eventually held on for a hard fought draw.

The next game was against the eventual pool winners Chelmsford, having lost two of the team's best tacklers the team started slowly and gave the opposition two soft tries at the start of the first half, however the team's confidence came back and they began to tackle again and a hard tackle from Tom resulted in Chelmsford being driven back over their own line and the ball being knocked loose, which Berty fell on for the score. Manor started the second half with new belief and eventually after some great attacking play from Maxwell and Kane, Sam out paced the covering defence to touch down in the corner. Game on at two tries each!
It stayed this way until Chelmsford got a break away try in the final seconds of the game.

Manor showed their quality in the final pool game against Stanford. By now Manor's set piece was purring, Ella had moved to scrum half and provided Max at fly half with the kind of service you only normally expect at the Ritz!! This enabled Max to curve open the defence and score two tries and create one for Finn, who also showed the opposition a clean pair of Nikes on the way to scoring in the corner. Maxwell added another try after some great work on the ground from Matthew, who secured the ball at the base of a ruck and then broke down the touchline. We scored one more try, but I can't remember who scored it, so I'll give it to the pack, Berty, Terrel & Kane.

Manor finished second in the pool and went on to contest the plate final against a very strong Westcliff side. Manor again defended really well with tackles flying in from all players, especially Terrel, Berty, Tom and Kane. Sam unfortunately had to leave the field due to another knock after some brave tackling. Louis used his footwork to create a few gaps in the defence but Westcliff closed down Manor quickly. The referee's wrong interpretation of the scrum rule stopped Ella from providing her usual quality service to Max, which meant that manor were unable to release their silky back line. Westcliff finally got the winning score after their scrum half was again permitted to come around the scrum to press the Manor ball and forcing a turn over.

It was a bit of a disappointing end to a great day for the team, however Manor can hold their head up and look forward to a fruitful season.
Thanks again to all the players, all of whom stepped up to the plate and played some fantastic rugby.

Thanks to the A team, Matt, Thierry & John and all the parents. Oh and a big get well soon to Morgan who unfortunately had to miss the festival.